It's Not Easy Trying to be One of the Guys: The Effect of Avatar Attractiveness,Avatar Sex,and User Sex on the Success of Help-Seeking Requests in an Online Game |
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| Authors: | T Franklin Waddell James D Ivory |
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| Institution: | 1. Pennsylvania State University;2. Department of Communication at Virginia Tech |
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| Abstract: | Interactions in online environments are influenced by many of the same gender and sex-role stereotypes that people use in offline interactions. However, less research has examined systematically how the traits of an avatar and the avatar's user interact to influence stereotypical responses in virtual spaces. A field experiment manipulated avatar attractiveness, avatar sex, user sex, and favor difficulty to measure responses to a requested favor across 2,300 interactions in an online game. Attractive avatars received more help than less attractive avatars, but female users received less help than male users when represented by avatars that were less attractive or male. |
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